ken_westmoreland Reviews

Balibo (2009)

Beautifully done.

[8/10 · 12 July 2009]

As someone with a long-standing interest in the history of East Timor, I had mixed feelings about this film, and how the people and events would be depicted. However, Robert Connolly did a great job, considering all of the constraints of a limited budget that he had. It did not go into minute detail about the historical events, but nor did it dumb down and sex up.

What happened to the Balibo Five and Roger East is only a very small fraction of the story of what happened in East Timor in 1975, and there will be accusations that the deaths of half a dozen Westerners are given more prominence than what happened to a far greater number of East Timorese. However, the East Timorese actors in the film, none of whom were professional actors, were tremendous - not least as they were reenacting events that they and their families were familiar with.

Tittybangbang (2005–2007)

Excruciatingly bad

[1/10 · 11 November 2006]

I thought that 'Little Britain' had gone downhill by the third series, but this was even worse. Characters are completely lame, and there seems to be the same embarrassing fixation with bodily functions as many other British comedies (a national embarrassment). Why is telling each other to 'shut up!' supposed to be funny, and what's all the stuff about 'duck and chips'? I think that the people who acted in it are more talented than this, and it amazes me that all professional actors are still supposed to belong to a trade union (Equity) when amateurs would turn down this kind of stuff. There's nothing wrong with having grotesque or dysfunctional characters at all, but these just aren't funny.

Omagh (2004 TV Movie)

That's what it was like

[8/10 · 10 October 2006]

The opening scene where the explosive is being mixed and the car number plates are switched was like looking through the bombers' eyes. Seeing a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier parked on the street, and hearing kids talking Spanish was like watching it happen again. That's what realism in film is about.

Of course this wouldn't have been shown in US movie theatres because it doesn't portray the IRA as swashbuckling heroes like "The Devil's Own" did, although "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" does that, and probably won't get shown either. I can't understand why anyone would need to have background information to the conflict in Northern Ireland as explanation- was Bloody Sunday justification for it? Judging by the number of Catholics killed and maimed in Omagh that day, I don't think so.

An Ungentlemanly Act (1992 TV Movie)

Ian Richardson was the wrong choice

[7/10 · 22 September 2006]

Nothing against him as an actor, he's a very good one, but I couldn't think of anyone less well suited to playing Rex Hunt. Ian Richardson is the English Home Counties personified (see him in Francis Urquhart) and Rex Hunt is a Yorkshireman. He could have least have dyed his hair - Hunt didn't have grey hair then, and for all I know, doesn't now!

I wasn't aware that it was filmed in the Falklands, which must have been more than a bit disconcerting for the locals. If I'd been there during the Argentine occupation, the last thing I'd want to hear would be the Argentine national anthem, and the last thing I'd want to see would be cars driving on the right!

The Path to 9/11 (2006)

Not rightwing propaganda

[10/10 · 11 September 2006]

I've finished watching it on BBC2, and I don't think it was a piece of rightwing propaganda at all - if anything, it's a welcome change to see liberals get worked up instead of frothing-at-the-mouth neocons.

So the Clinton administration misread the situation - shock horror! - the man's not a saint, is he? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and there are many things that could and should have been done, but weren't. The only source of discomfort I have is not political bias, but with how the bereaved families would have felt at the depiction of the hijackings and their relatives' last words. However, I don't believe that these were sensationalised.